Armor & Mobility

AUG 2017

Military magazines in the United States and Canada, covering Armor and Mobility, focuses on tactical vehicles, C4ISR, Special Operations Forces, latest soldier equipment, shelters, and key DoD programs

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 21 of 31

Armor & Mobility had the opportunity to speak with General
Joseph L. Votel, Commander, U.S. Central Command, (USCENTCOM),
on issues relating to CENTCOM's critical relationship with various
regional partners and ongoing efforts to maintain a balance of
power within the Middle East.
PARTNERING FOR
THREAT MITIGATION AND
REGIONAL STABILIZATION
Finally, we must make sure that we are postured for purpose in this
region. We must have a credible, ready, and present force coupled with
foreign military sales and foreign military financing programs that serve
to build and shape partner nation capability in a timely and effective
fashion. Ours is a challenging and very important mission.
Our U.S. Special Forces continue to train, advise, assist and accompany
indigenous forces in various areas within our region to progress
towards a status quo where those forces are able to mitigate threats
and maintain stability on their own. For example, we continued to have
SOF supporting the Manbij Military Council forces even after Manbij's
liberation from ISIS in August. The MMC provide security to Manbij as
local governance works to revitalize their city.
We work in close coordination with partner forces and our allies to
remain focused in delivering a lasting defeat to our common enemy,
ISIS. We also are already thinking past ISIS occupation cities, and how
General Joseph L. Votel
Commander
U.S. Central Command
USCENTCOM
A&M: With the 2016 reaffirmation of security partnering between
CENTCOM and Saudi Arabia, including efforts to check Iranian
destabilizing activities in the region and counter violent extremism, how
is CENTCOM leadership working to ensure effective execution of these
efforts from a team perspective?
GEN Votel: First, I want to say that the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines,
Coast Guardsmen and civilians that make up the command are world-
class and truly the very best at what they do. Our strategic intent for
CENTCOM is very straightforward: prepare, pursue, and prevail. We
must prepare the environment to ensure an effective posture and strong
relationships across the region. We pursue opportunities to strengthen
relationships and support our interests. And when our forces are put into
action, we prevail in our assigned missions.
With our coalition partners, we've adopted a "by, with and through"
approach that places a heavy reliance on indigenous forces. We place
trust in our leaders in these forward locations to make decisions in
time-compressed situations. We are seeing consistent success with
this approach, despite some challenges, and it is likely to pay significant
dividends going forward. From our train and assist program with the
Iraqi security forces to supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces and
Syrian Arab Coalition, our armed forces and coalition partners are
executing campaigns in the central region with significantly fewer U.S.
forces on the ground than in previous years.
A&M: What are CENTCOM's primary focal areas to achieve its strategic
goals in the region?
GEN Votel: I've identified three focus areas that I believe we must
accomplish in order to successfully execute our strategy:
First, we must restore trust with our partners in the region while at the
same time maintaining the trust of our leadership in Washington. The
fact is we cannot surge trust in times of crisis so we must do what is
necessary now to assure our partners of our commitment and staying
power.
Second, we must link our military objectives and campaigns as closely
as possible to policy objectives and into our other instruments of
national power. In other words, we must align our military objectives and
soft power capabilities with desired national and regional strategic end
states, recognizing that if we don't do this, we risk creating space for our
adversaries to achieve their strategic aims.
COMMAND FOCUS
www.tacticaldefensemedia.com 20 | Armor & Mobility | August 2017